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Statistically, player-controlled monks tend to be extremely similar to Mages with higher Resistance and slightly lower Defense. Curiously, though users of Light Magic often have high Luck, both playable monks have below-average luck.

Enemy Monks tend to be weaker than enemy Mages in virtually every area aside from Resistance. Their Magic growth in particular is extremely inadequate, falling a full 25% beneath that of the standard Mage. This problem is exacerbated by the lower Might and (ironically) heavier weight of Light tomes, as well as the relative scarcity of Dark Magic carriers, the only units they will ever achieve a Weapon Triangle Advantage over. As a result of these shortcomings, enemy Monks are among the weakest enemies in the series, their only real asset being their ability to occasionally score moderately painful critical hits against units with low Luck and Resistance. They are slightly more dangerous in The Sacred Stones than in The Blazing Blade because tactician stars, which lower the odds of an enemy scoring a critical hit, do not exist in the former.

Monks, like Priests, can promote into Bishops. As Bishops, they are permitted to wield Staves alongside Light Magic, allowing them to further aid their allies through healing and support magic.

In The Sacred Stones, Monks also gain Slayer upon promotion into Bishops, a skill that grants them the ability to inflict effective damage against Monster-based enemies. They are also given the additional option to promote into Sages, a class that lets them wield not just Staves and Light Magic, but also Anima Magic.

In the GBA games, the monk's generic enemy portrait is shared with that of Priests and Clerics. The portrait displays a person in white robes carrying a staff; this is incorrect in the case of the Monk, owing to the fact that the class is not able to use staves.

There are only two playable monks in the entire series, one in each of the two games they appear in.